They're perfect as water tribe but my only question is why does Ariel have her tail? The wording of my question isn't quite what I want but Ariel dressed as water tribe and having her tail just seems a hint awkward since I imagine the polar water tribe style clothing isn't the easiest to swim in even for a water bender mermaid

If this had been what Ariel was like, I might have liked her character. Not merely because she was more empowering, but because Mike and Bryan are such great writers. Most of the time, you don't even notice the fact that half the characters are female.

In the version we got, Ariel makes a rash irrational decision to become human based on a woman who's obviously evil, is not punished for her stupid decision and learns absolutely nothing from it. If I had been in charge, I would have her finding out the surface world isn't as good as she thought it would be, falling in love with a commoner, and at the end the commoner gets turned into a merman and Ariel learns to count her blessings. Although the surface world wouldn't be portrayed as totally awful.

While it was a bit rash, she did end up admitting her mistakes at the end. Her punishment comes in what we call not getting a full happy ending. She leaves her family and becomes human to live on land and i'm sure that there's been some silence between the time she left and Melody was born.remember Eric was just a bonus, she just wanted to be a part of the human world. Her tv series expands on that fact and is considered canon to the movie by taking place before it. Ariel even chides Melody for making the same mistakes she did because she was trying to prevent it, although poorly by blocking all access to magoc despite being a creature of magic herself.